Posts Tagged ‘augmented reality’

Australian developer Nnooo has recently received approval to develop for Nintendo’s upcoming home console, the Wii U. The Sydney based studio is the first Australian developer to announce Wii U approval.

Nnooo has been developing titles for Nintendo since the studio was formed in 2006 and is best known for US WiiWare™ launch title Pop™, the myLifeCollected™ range of lifestyle applications for Nintendo DSiWare™, and most recently escapeVektor™: Chapter 1 for WiiWare.

“We’re thrilled to receive developer approval for this exciting new console,” said Nic Watt, Creative Director at Nnooo. “We can’t wait to see what the console is capable of and already have a number of ideas we’d like to experiment with.”

Nnooo is currently developing Spirit Hunters Inc, an augmented reality RPG for Nintendo DSiWare, and escapeVektor for the Nintendo 3DS™ and PlayStation®Vita, all of which are expected to be released in the final quarter of 2012.

“We’re very close to finishing Spirit Hunters Inc and escapeVektor,” said Watt. “We’ll be showcasing the games at Gamescom in Cologne in the middle of August. Once these games are completed we’ll be prototyping some ideas for the Wii U to get a feel for what we can do. We’ve already had a quick play with the hardware and everyone in the studio is super impressed by the GamePad and the capabilities of the Wii U itself.”

Spirit Hunters Inc and escapeVektor are scheduled for release in late 2012.

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If you would like to meet us at Gamescom for an interview and/or to preview Spirit Hunters Inc and escapeVektor, please contact us at press@nnooo.com.

Spirit Hunters Inc. Remember that? Yes you do. It’s our augmented reality spirit hunting and battling RPG. We’ve been working on it for a couple of years now and we’re delighted to report it’s in good shape.

So good in fact that we took it to E3 to show journalists. Nintendo World Report are first up with their impressions of the game. They seemed to be surprised at the depth the game offers. Not a surprise to us – that’s why it’s taken us 2 years to get here!

“So when is it due for release?” we hear you shout in unison. Well, we feel confident that it will be released around the 4th quarter of this year. We’re tidying the game up, testing it furiously (and having a great time while we do) and fixing those pesky bugs which always seem to find their way into games.

It will be a downloadable title for Nintendo DSiWare, so you can hunt and battle the spirits on your Nintendo DSi or on your Nintendo 3DS through the eShop. Keep an eye on this News site for more updates and information (including price) over the coming months.

Excited yet? Go on, give us a smile. You know you want to. Just like this —>

The second day started with one of those meetings we can’t talk about at the moment, but which could lead to an interesting future development. This is one of the things we love about GDC – there are so many industry people there to meet and talk with about potential opportunities. Of course, if anything does happen, we’ll let you know right here on our blog. (more…)

Gizmodo Australia run a regular feature called Developer Cubed in which they focus on Australia’s up and coming dev scene. They grabbed Nic for a quick interview recently.

Nic & Bruce - the owners of Nnooo

Developers Cubed: Nnooo

by Alex Kidman

Gizmodo’s Developers Cubed series offers a behind the scenes look into Australia’s up and coming dev scene. This week: We chat with Nic from Sydney-based games developer Nnooo about why all development isn’t just iOS development and why it’s important to carve your own niche.

Developers! Developers! Developers!
It’s not just Steve Ballmer’s favourite sweat-laden catchcry! If you’d like to be featured in Developers Cubed, shoot a note to alex.kidman at alluremedia.com.au. I’d love to hear from you.

Who are you and where do you work?
My name is Nic Watt and I’m the Creative Director (and technically CEO) of Nnooo an indie games company based in Sydney, Australia

Why do we know you? What have you created?
We have created several successful franchises for WiiWare and DSiWare and are now turning our hand to the next generation of consoles with games for Nintendo 3DS and other unannounced consoles. Our most successful projects have been Pop, a launch title for the WiiWare service; Pop + Solo a sequel to Pop for DSiWare and our myLifeCollected series of applications for DSiWare which includes myNotebook, myPostcards and myDiary; finally escapeVektor our latest game was released to critical acclaim at the end of last year on WiiWare.

Our current projects include escapeVektor for Nintendo 3DS (and other platforms – to be announced) and Spirit Hunters Inc an augmented reality RPG for DSiWare and Nintendo 3DS.

Kotaku Australia have recently introduced a new feature for Australian developers called Show & Tell. When they asked for developers to submit answers to five questions describing their studio and current projects we couldn’t resist. It gave us a great chance to tell some more people about escapeVektor: Chapter 1 and Spirit Hunters Inc.

Show And Tell: Nnooo

by Tracey Lien

Welcome to Show and Tell, a (relatively) new regular that gives local Australian indie developers the chance to show their latest work, whether its a finished game or a work in progress. Today we’re speaking to an indie studio that is no stranger to the WiiWare, DSi and iOS market. Bruce Thomson from Nnooo gave us a preview of what they’re working on now.

Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your studio?

We are an independent game development studio based in Sydney, developing downloadable games primarily for Nintendo consoles. Our first game was called Pop, a bubble popping game for up to four players for the Wii. It was one of only six titles picked for Nintendo’s US WiiWare launch in 2008. We subsequently made a single player version of the game, Pop+ Solo, for the Nintendo DSi and iPhone. We’ve also released a series of personal organiser applications for the Nintendo DSi called the myLifeCollected series. The most successful of the applications, the myNotebook series, has sold almost a quarter of a million units.

We recently had a visit from Nintendo World Report who were looking to do a feature piece on Nnooo, including an interview with Nic. We were delighted with this resulting article which gives a great feel for the office and really gets to the heart of what we are up to. Plus there’s a great interview with Nic which includes Nic’s game design influences, why we made the myLifeCollected series, a little more insight into escapeVektor and what we think of Nintendo. (more…)

We’ve always thought Mark Serrels from Kotaku Australia was an entertaining journalist so when he won Best Games Journalist at this year’s Australia/New Zealand IT Journalism Awards, we weren’t really surprised. We’ve been trying to get Mark round to our office for a while now but his busy schedule has made it difficult. However, he managed to find some time to visit a few weeks ago and this entertaining and informative article is the result. We really like it!

An Audience With Nnooo: EscapeVektor, Spirit Hunters And Designing Games With Post-It Notes

Australian-based developer Nnooo recently invited us to visit its studio, based in Pyrmont, Sydney, to talk game development, taking risks, and how to design a video game using Post-It notes.

Post-It notes. Everywhere you look. Impossible to escape. Covered in silhouettes, random designs, mazes, outlines. Organised in shapes. Meta Post-It notes – not just for scribbles, but for the framework of things. Master plans doused in yellow. A yellow-print.

I’ve just entered Nnooo headquarters. A handshake from Creative Director Nic Watt later and I’m drawn to the main wall of the office. I walk past in a hypnotic daze, almost cutting Nic off mid-sentence – “why are all these Post-It notes on the wall,” I mutter absently, to no-one in particular. “What do they mean…”

We were recently contacted by the Indie Games Channel for a written interview. As well as asking Nic about the background to escapeVektor and Spirit Hunters Inc, they were keen to learn more about the game development process and the challenges of making games for different platforms. Finally, Nic has some advice for new development studios. (more…)

Nic caught up with Jessica Citizen from Gamepron when we were at GCAP on the Gold Coast last week. Click here to see to him talk about what we’ve been up to this year, including Spirit Hunters Inc, his thoughts on 3DS and augmented reality, Nintendo platforms for developers and the iPhone.